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sunburn

My good friend from Quirks and Chaos was asking me about pain and sensitivity when you have sensory issues.

(I love when people ask me questions because I think of things to say that I normally wouldn’t just come up with off the top of my head.) So props to her for helping me come up with this. Lol

I think the reason things can seem a lot more painful or even less painful to some people is what their skin (or whatever) is over or under sensitive to.

If the outer layer of our skin is super sensitive, we’re going to be able to feel things on it a lot more than other people would who don’t have over sensitive skin.

It goes back to being sensory seeking or sensory avoiding. If our skin is super sensitive or our nerves are over active then we’re not going to either want something touching us or we’re going to need something touching us (like weighted objects).

I think the best way to look at it is like you have sunburn. When your skin is really badly burned, you don’t want anything touching your skin. Everything that touches your skin, even the wind blowing, you can feel it on the surface of your skin. Your skin is over sensitive.

So when our children (or us as adults) freak out because the seams in their socks are obvious or the tag on the back of their shirt is bothering them, the best way to think of it is like they have a sunburn.

If they had a sunburn you would be more accepting and willing to forgive them for being over sensitive to the fact that those things are bothering them. Because it’s something you understand and can relate to. But just because you can’t see that metaphorical sunburn, doesn’t mean that it’s not there.

I think that goes towards pain in general.

Some pain I can deal with and some I can’t… Just like some noises I can and some I can’t.

Also, the anticipation of pain is worse for me at times than the actual pain. (Anxiety).